Digital-age duo Pleasantville creates magic without meeting in studio for debut album

After meeting during a theater production, songwriter Aaron David Gleason tagged vocalist Emma Freeman in an online guitar riff post, sparking a creative partnership that would become Pleasantville. Named for Gleason's New York village home base, Pleasantville blends studio polish with raw vulnerability on their debut album, These Embers. “I was planning on making a solo album, and I sent one song to Emma, and she added background vocals on, and I had no notes for her. It was hand in glove,” Gleason told Westchester Magazine.

Freeman's angelic harmonies and Gleason's indie rock instincts shouldn't work together. But it creates a mesmerizing fusion. Their sound has already caught Rolling Stone's ear — the magazine named them one of "10 Bands to Look Out For."